My polypters senegalus skull

[BuffaloPolypteridae]

Both will work but make u dont get caught on fire just be cautious. It does work with gar as I have a florida, gator and shornose too. Wont work with fish that have tiny scales. U need to dry them up.

What do you think of doing a 3 inch ATF w/ this method? Or would maceration be easier (i was planning on macerating in the spring)? This makes me wish i kept my 7 inch senegal from high school haha very cool guys!

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[cephalofoil]

What do you think of doing a 3 inch ATF w/ this method? Or would maceration be easier (i was planning on macerating in the spring)? This makes me wish i kept my 7 inch senegal from high school haha very cool guys!

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IMO maceration is NEVER easy. Sure you get clean bones but they're all jumbled and finding good resources of specific fish skulls is very hard. And fish under a foot are difficult. Thr larger and more robust the skull the easier it is. I'd dip in warm water and disarticulate while taking pictures of articulation points. Degrease the bone in acetone or ammonia then whiten in 3% hydrogen peroxide. Thats what I read on a lot of taxidermy websites.

If macerating get familiar with fish skulls buy a tilapia (they're cichlids) and they have thick bones. You can learn a lot there. That's where I started.

Also atf wouldny have the correct kind of scales for this. Fish with ganoid scales like gar and bichirs have scales that are thick and essentially like bone. They interlock together. Normal scales won't hold up.

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[BuffaloPolypteridae]

I'm not worried about the scale and body I just want the skull, would the teeth stay in?

Also, I have a whole parrotfish in the freezer I could do! (Was not a pet bought to eat haha) they have crazy big and thick scales, the size of a half dollar at like 10 inch

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[cephalofoil]

I'm not worried about the scale and body I just want the skull, would the teeth stay in?

Also, I have a whole parrotfish in the freezer I could do! (Was not a pet bought to eat haha) they have crazy big and thick scales, the size of a half dollar at like 10 inch

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For skull I would just dip in warm water and remove flesh with tweezers and toothpicks. With Maceration sometimes the teeth fallout since there is tissue holding the teeth into the jaw and it rots away. And since the teeth are so small at that size you'd never be able to put them all back. My first tilapia skull was missing 1/3 of its teeth cause of that.

I would remove the gills and tongue too. Ive never been audacious enough to do them. Being familiar with that series of bones is a lot to ask for even for pros.

Take a lot of pictures. It'll help.

Practice on a fish you dont mind messing up. Fish all have the same bones more or less.

I attached a pic of my first tilapia I didn't degrease or whiten it. I didn't degrease or whiten my Senegal either.


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[BuffaloPolypteridae]

wow tilapia actually have some teeth haha alright thanks for the advice man im going to start the little atf soon.

about the atf, how about just plucking out all the soft stuff i can (eyes tounge brain) then just drying it?

 

[cephalofoil]

wow tilapia actually have some teeth haha alright thanks for the advice man im going to start the little atf soon.

about the atf, how about just plucking out all the soft stuff i can (eyes tounge brain) then just drying it?

Yup that works. The warm water dip just loosens the skin and flesh to make it easier to remove. It keeps some connection between bones to prevent full disarticulation. Should have clarified. You have to dig around through the foramen magnum (not sure what its called in fish) with a toothpick to get the brain out.

After getting as much as I could off, I removed the lower jaw as well, I buried the head in baking powder to dry it all out. Glued it together with crazy glue. That's how I did the Senegal.

Sorry i ve been so all over the place with techniques haha I'm trying to figure out what works for me compared to the "proper" taxidermist way.

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[BuffaloPolypteridae]

Oh yeah same here man the only other thing I've ever done were squirrel skins and that's simple compared to the bone stuff haha I'd love to get good at this stuff though, people love it and it demands a bit o cash too for a good specimen

Thanks again for the help, I'll probably throw a pic on this thread when its done
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[aztec22]

that's sick. never would have guessed.